Wednesday, January 13, 2010

earring necklace

I recently repurposed a pair of clip-on earrings into a necklace & took photos of the process to share...

in addition to the earrings I bought a chain & jump rings at michaels

remove the clip-on component using a pair of needle nose pliers

sand down any raised or rough area that is exposed when the clip-on is removed

for the long piece to connect the two earrings I used part of a pin back

I cut off the pin & catch at either end

then sanded down the edges so they were nice & smooth

next I used e-6000 glue {be warned its stinky & toxic} to secure the pin back to the earrings

after it was dry I used more glue to add the jump rings - a stretched out paper clip provided support while it dried

finally I removed one link from the chain so I had two ends to attach to the jump rings & there you go...a necklace!

**edit to add: soldering the pin back & jump rings onto the earrings would be a more secure way to construct this but I don't know how yet. if you use glue, double check you've used enough on the jump rings especially & just keep in mind when you wear it that it is more delicate than soldered type jewelry.

Excellent tutorial. Thanks so much for sharing. I love the modern look that you have created with a pair of outdated earrings. Here's hoping we all find such great earrings to work with in our treasure hunts.

brooklynbee - the sanding tool I use is a black & ddecker RTX rotary tool. it's very easy to use but it was a hand-me-down so I don't know how much it costs or even if they make them anymore. sorry I don't have more info for you...

love this tutorial (so much so that I just tweeted about it @buttercupcaren). This is so perfectly inspiring to me, as I'm dying to do try out jewelry upcycling!Thanks so much for sharing & making it so easy to understand! :)

The necklace is beautiful! I have a bunch of vintage jewelery i would love to refashion. Thank you for the inspiration! Hope you don't mind if I link to you if I ever make my own attempt(maybe in 2012...)

This is lovely and you are adorable! Thank you for your incredibly sweet feedback on etsy, look for the feature on you tomorrow! And you had to go and make a tote version didn't you?! Now, I am going to obsess about that until I get one! :) xoMelis